 The challenge of the Yukon. The Wonder Dog King, the swiftest and strongest of Eskimo lead dogs, blazes the trail through storm and snow for Sergeant Preston as he meets the challenge of the Yukon. Sergeant Preston was typical of the small band of northwest-mounted police who preserved law and order in the new northwest country, where the greed for wealth and power led to frequent violence and bloodshed. But in spite of the odds against them, Sergeant Preston and his Wonder Dog King met that challenge, and justice ruled triumphant. Sergeant Preston stood talking to Shane O'Neill. A strong cold wind was cutting into the two men as the young trappers' acts bit him fatically into the log he was splitting. On this frame of mind, Shane, you ought to get a lot of those logs split. Yeah. I see what you mean. You don't know where a man could trap, say, $5,000 worth of pelts in this country, do you, Sergeant? $5,000? Well, that's a lot of pelts. If you set some traps up in the hills, you'd get some good pelts, but I doubt very much... But not $5,000 worth, huh? Probably not. Why? Oh, it's Julie's father. Jim? What's he got to do with it? Well, I've already asked Julie to marry me, see. Well, does Jim have something against you? Or is it Julie? Oh, no, no. Julie will marry me all right. And her father's for me. But he says I'm not making enough to support her. This last season's been a poor one. He figures that if I had to have $5,000 in the bank, that it'd be enough to tie this over for a couple of seasons like this last one. That's good sense. Sure, it's good sense, but I don't have $5,000. Mallory's been calling on Julie lately. And her father thinks that because dude's cafes are paying proposition, that she ought to pay more attention to him. Oh, wait a minute, Shane. Judy's calling you. Hi! Oh, there, Sergeant. It's a huge bit of stuff to catch some breath. You've been running all the way from here, please? Yes, I have. I wanted to tell Shane father's looking for him. For me? Yes, he wants to talk to you. What's he want to talk to me about? Seems to me he made everything plain enough the last time I saw it. Oh, well, if that's the way you feel about it, all right. I'll just tell him you said that. Oh, I'm sorry, Julie. I'll go right over. Oh, why don't you come too, Sergeant? Father feels that you've blighted up, stopping at Shane's. Glad to see you, Sergeant. Here, sit down. Most comfortable chair in the place. Hey, see you still got the best-looking dog in the Yukon. Ah, thanks, Jim. Yes, King's my right-hand man, aren't you, boy? Shane, I called you over here because I want to talk to you about a dog. You know the race they have over in Middleton every year? Yeah. Well, I got a dog I think can win it. That is, he can win it if Sergeant Preston here don't end the King. No, King's not running in any race. Well, then I'm sure a winning, providing I can get someone to handle the dog. I'm too old to train him myself. A couple of years ago, maybe I could have done it, but I didn't have a dog I felt was good enough then. Where did you get the dog, Mr. Stanley? I bought him the other day, and he's a beauty, strong as a nox. Now, I'll make a deal with you, Shane. I'm listening, sir. Well, you train the dog, and I'll put up the $500 to enter him in the race. And if he wins, I'll split the $10,000 prize with you. That means you'll get $5,000 out of it. And if... say, then I could marry... Well, yep, that's right. You could marry Julie with my blessings, providing you win the race. Now, what do you say? What do I say, Mr. Stanton? You've got yourself a trainer for that dog. Sergeant Preston was delayed at Middleton, waiting for orders to come through from headquarters. And while he waited, he worked with Shane O'Neill, helping the young trapper to train his dog, Kuna, for the race. A short distance from his cabin, Shane stood talking to the Monty. Well, from what I've seen, I'd say he's ready for the race now. Just what I was thinking myself. There's only one other entry that stands a chance to come in any ways near him. Mallory's dog, huh? Yeah, he's a favorite. And there's no ceiling on the beds either. Yes, I know. I was in town this morning. I heard a lot of talk about him. I haven't seen the dog myself, but I... Yeah, speak of the devil. I guess I came out to get a look at the competition. Hi there, Sergeant Preston. Why don't you get on the side of a winner? What's that, dude? Why don't you play this smart and come over to our camp? My dog will pull the legs off this one. I wouldn't be too sure about that, Mallory. No. Wouldn't like to place a bet on the side, would you, Shane? Everybody in town knows who's going to win that race. I'll make a bet with you, Mallory. You're one man I don't mind taking money from. Listen to that. You sure are a sucker for punishment. Are all the entries in, dude? Yeah, yeah, I've 20 up. 500 dollars ahead. And winner take all the way it was last year? Yeah. Personally, I think they ought to enter 25 dogs. That way there's a little cash left over to give the judges. Well, dude, most of those men are in it for the sport of it, not for the money. Not me. I'm interested only in cash. How about that bet, Shane? You want to back up the big talking you've been doing about that dog? Come into town and we'll let Sam Morrison hold the money. I'll be in first thing in the morning. You name the figure. I'll see you. Step in at the cafe, sir. I'll do that, dude. Come on. Goodbye. I don't know what you think about that, Sergeant, but I don't like it. It seems to me he's a little bit too sure of himself to be planning to win that race, honestly. He's got something up his sleeve. And me, I'm going to be watching Kuna day and night to make sure he don't get a chance to pull it. The day of the race, while dude Mallory struggled into his heavy weather repellent Mackinaw in the back room of the cafe, he spoke to a heavy set man who glanced nervously out of the window from time to time. You sure the girl hold for the first part of the race? Yeah. The only thing is, now... What? Well, Neil stayed with his dog and sled last night. He didn't have a chance to get near any of his stuff. But once the race starts... Now listen, I already told you what I want. It's that knife for his. He's used it to skin pelts for the last five years. Everybody will recognize it. You get that knife when we can both swear it was found beside our sled. Don't worry, I'll get it. Shane, who Neil's going to lose this race and it's going to be a big surprise to him when he finds it out. Slowly the dogs inched forward, pulling the heavy sleds through the snow. Muscles straining in a contest where strength and stamina were as important as speed. King looked at the mob of people. Every man and woman in the crowd stood watching the race. All of them oblivious of the dog standing back patiently waiting for his master. The great malamute felt the common bond of excitement that held the crowd without knowing its reason. And so he fought it strange when one man from all the numbers walked unnoticed from a cheering townspeople. Strength were nearing the finish line. Shane, O'Neill and Duke Mallory were ahead of the others. Their dogs so close it was almost impossible to tell which was ahead. Then as O'Neill pulled away from the others Duke Mallory's dog bent his head in one great effort and suddenly the harness snapped sending the dogs sprawling in the snow and leaving the sled of the standstill. The race was Shane O'Neill. You'll see what it is, Mr. Stanton. Hey, Sam! Sam, come here a minute. I want to show you something. Come on, dude. Well, Shane, I want to congratulate you. That was a fine show and you may guess, sir. Not so fast with the congratulations, Sam. Better have a look at my gear first. What's wrong with it? It was cut. That's what's wrong with it. Come on over here. Congratulations, Shane. What happened to your harness, dude? It was a bad time for it to break, wasn't it? Break? It didn't break. You see this? That's where the leather was cut. Just enough to weaken us so it'd give out on the race. Well, O'Neill, so this is the way you thought you'd get me out of the running, huh? Sam, I demand you to disqualify him. Disqualify me? Look here, Mallory. I didn't have a thing to do with that. Oh, no, no, no. Listen, everybody in town knows what you stood to gain by winning that race. You know that my dog was the only one in the line up that could beat yours, so you made sure he wouldn't. That gear was all right yesterday. I wasn't near that sled of yours. Can you prove it? What do you mean? Can I prove it? I thought you planned to pull a stunt like that on my sled, so I stayed up all night keeping my eye on it. No likely story that is. Sam, what are you going to do about this? You can see where the leather was cut. Yeah, I see. Well, I hate to do this, Shane, but it looks like you kind of overstepped yourself doing nothing like this. Oh, Shane. Julie, I don't know what this is all about. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Don't you think you should have proof of Shane's guilt before you disqualify him? Yeah, sure. Well, I reckon so, Sergeant. But it looks like he'd be the only one that have reason to cut the harness. Like Dude says, anybody can see his dog and Shane's was the best entered and the most likely winner. If you want proof, Sergeant, we can go over to where the sleds were kept. Bound to be some way to tell who did it. Yeah, let's go over there. Well, then come on. Come on. Never thought Shane would do a thing like that. Dude Mallory, flanked by Sergeant Preston and Sam Morrison, was followed by Shane O'Neill and as many people who'd heard the dispute. Quickly the group walked to the small stall-like lean-to where Dude's dog and sled had been sheltered. The cafe owner hesitated at the entrance. He'd expected Harry Conway to be there to meet him, but the place was empty. Well, dude, I guess you might as well look around. I don't know how you can tell anything from these tracks, oh, Sergeant. No, they're pretty well-tamped in. They overlap in so many places. It's hard to separate them. Well, maybe he left something here. A clue of some kind. Isn't that what you'd call it, Sergeant? A dozen pairs of eyes looked about the small enclosure. And as they did, a strange sound came to their ears. It was King. The great Malamute had followed Harry Conway when the man walked to where Shane O'Neill's dog and sled had been housed in a lean-to similar to Mallory's. It was when he saw Conway rummage through the pockets of a spare mackinac that he'd jumped the man. As the intruder fell, he struck his head against a pole, losing consciousness for the space of a few minutes. When the man stirred, King was instantly on guard again. That's King. But where's Shane? That's coming from your lean-to. I'm right with you, Sergeant. You won't touch anything with that knife, Conway. This man's on your payroll, isn't he, dude? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was. What are you doing here? I'm sick of looking at that dog. Down the back away from me. Not until you've told me why you're in here. As long as O'Neill's pack is in this lean-to, it's legally his property, at least until 10 hours after the race is over. Rest him for trespassing, Sergeant. Who rest me? Are you dirty, yellow dog? You think you can show this on me, huh? Who wouldn't for you, I wouldn't be in here. Shut up. Get the knife, you said, and we'll plant it in our lean-to. You didn't tell me this foiling a devil to be standing guard, did you? You didn't tell me every time I try to get past him, them teeth of his would be in the way. Don't you know being arrested for trespassing is nothing? Now, shut up! A little bit too late to tell him that, dude. He's already told us how we need to know. All right, King. Sam, I think it's pretty plain what happened here. That knife Conway is holding in his hand was to be used to frame shame. No, no, no, just a minute, Sergeant. Now maybe we can make a... Conway. Who cut the gear? You or Duke? Shut up, Harry. You don't have to tell anything. I could still arrest him for... I cut one side and Duke cut the other, Sergeant, if we want to cut our own gear, that's our business. Not when you try to frame another man for doing it. Well, look, look, suppose that, uh, suppose we just forget all about this. Forget about it? I'll take it out of your hide, your cheap tin of horn. Now, maybe you better forget about the chain. You've just won $10,000. That's right. I forgot about that. Well, I ain't forgot about it. Now, come on over, son. I'll give you the money in cash. Dad, Dad, did you hear that? Chain won. He won! Yes, fellow. He won all right. But it's because of you that he'll collect the prize. These copyrighted dramas originate in the studios of WXYZ Detroit, and all characters, names, places, and incidents used are fictitious. They're sent to you each week at the same time and originate in our transcription studios.